Darrell Issa mum on Libya trip

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa returned to Washington on Thursday after a trip this week that included stops in Egypt and Libya as part of his investigation into last year’s attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

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“That would be classified,” Issa said.

Issa drew the ire of Oversight Committee ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who blasted the California Republican last week for not including Democrats on his trip. Issa’s previous directives to the committee required overseas delegations to be bipartisan, but less than 48-hours before he was scheduled to depart, the Democrats on the committee had not been made aware of the trip.

Cummings called on Issa to delay the trip in order to allow a Democrat to accompany him. Issa did not publicly respond to the letter and traveled without a Democrat.

Issa has been leading the charge to investigate the Sept. 11, 2012, attack at the Benghazi consulate that killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

Last week, Issa held a hearing to try to discredit a report by the Accountability Review Board that cited a lack of needed security at embassies but drew the criticism of Republicans for failing to criticize high-ranking State Department employees, particularly former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A report by the inspector general released this week affirmed the independence of the ARB report.

“The Accountability Review Board process operates as intended — independently and without bias — to identify vulnerabilities in the Department of State’s security programs,” the inspector general found.